SIM card found in Mumbai woman's underwear leads cops to her killers

On Wednesday, 17-year-old Rani Singh’s body was found in a red suitcase abandoned at Talegaon railway station in Pune; data obtained from the card led the Talegaon police to Mumbai, where they nabbed her 3 killers

On the morning of May 7, there was a stir at Talegaon railway station when an abandoned red suitcase on platform no 2 was pried opened to reveal the body of a woman, later identified as 17-year-old Rani Singh. During the panchnama, the police found a SIM card hidden in the victim’s underwear. This crucial clue helped the police crack the case within days.

An officer from Talegaon GRP said: “On the hunt for leads, we obtained valuable data from the SIM card, including details of people who had made calls to the number. With the help of this data, we identified the probable accused in the case.”

During the panchnama, the police found a SIM card hidden in the victim’s underwear. They found phone numbers of two suspects from the card

Two youngsters — identified as Rahul Ravindra Barai and Ershan Ali Khureshi (both 21) — were picked up from Nalasopara. They disclosed the involvement of a man named Santosh Jugdar, who was then picked up from the Himmat Nagar area in Wadala.

Rahul Ravindra Barai and Ershan Ali Khureshi (both 21) were picked up from Nalasopara. They named Santosh Jugdar, who was then picked up from Wadala

An officer said, “After arresting them, we took them to Pune for interrogation, in the course of which they revealed that they were involved in cases of cheating. Recently, Singh, the victim who was also a member of the gang, had told them that she planned to leave the group. Angry with her for defecting, the trio killed her on the orders of the gang leader.”

The three accused revealed that the victim, Rani Singh, was a member of their gang. When she decided to quit the gang, their leader ordered them to kill her

The gang of five consisted of the three arrested conmen, the deceased woman, and an absconding accused — the gang leader — who is based in Bangalore. The gang had been cheating people on the pretext of giving them hefty amounts of money through lotteries. They had also created a bank account in Singh’s name, in which they kept their ill-gotten wealth.

Last month, a complaint was registered at Antop Hill police station against Barai. Singh came to know about this. Afraid that she would be arrested, Singh decided to leave the life of crime behind. She intimated the other gang members.

“The trio informed their Bangalore-based leader, who ordered them to kill Singh. They were all worried that Singh would turn against them and confess their crimes to the police. Barai and Khureshi called her to Nalasopara, where they killed her.

They stuffed her body inside a suitcase and took it in a cab to Jugdar, who then took the suitcase to Pune and abandoned it at the station,” added an officer.

The team of Talegaon GRP officials enlisted the help of the Wadala Truck Terminal police. An officer from the police station said, “There are several cases pending against Jugdar at the Wadala T T police station. The Talegaon GRP were in the city to check whether the accused had any weapons in their posse-ssion.” Jugdar has married several times, once to a police constable posted at Naigaon.

The accused have been booked under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC. Singh’s father Sabarjit said, “We had recently gone to our native place and she went missing after we returned. She would often travel with Santosh Jugdar, so I assumed she had gone somewhere wi-th him and didn’t lodge a complaint.”